That's looking fantastic! Looking forward to more pix.

tango - did you get my last e-mail? Wondered, because I had difficulty sending it. Yahoo has introduced a new system for e-mails with attachments, to prevent spam, and I had a screenshot attached. Took quite a few tries before the e-mail 'went'...

Did you add any admixture to the cement paste? My experience has been (plus I was always warned) that a high proportion of cement on the surface leads to crazing. It's not a structural problem, and can look pretty nice (a bit like crazed chinese porcelain). But not an effect that you'd want on a faux-wood surface.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:67079}}

Tango - thanks for posting the photo. As always, your work is wonderful. I look forward to more photos - especially a close up of the table top. It appears to be very realistic looking and especially attractive.
Laura

Hello RD --- No, I haven/t recieved anything from you recently. In fact, I'm still having trouble myself trying to put together a version of my website homepage layout that can be attached and won't take several days to load or open, so I can relate to Email problems.

As for the paste involved...crazing can be a real problem unless the curing takes place under anything short of perfect conditions. It's mostly a question of degrees. If the curing is not properly controlled, then the surface crazing can have devastating effects (or decorative effects...as in the case of the intentionally crazed sample in your pic). But even under "ideal" conditions, there will be some amount of almost microscopic fractures on the surface. When controlled to that level, they can actually enhance the "look" of some types of work. In studying the historic work of this type done 50 to 100 years ago, I have yet to find a piece that did not have some measure of crazing. On the very best work of Dionisio Rodriguez, it is so limited & small in scale that you literally need a magnifying glass to find it, and then only in some areas.

The paste I am currently using is modified with fly ash, superplasticizer, latex and retarder, but I am constantly experimenting in the effort to perfect the combination. When combined with an extremely low water contenet, it yields a mix that looks, feels & works like sculpting clay and would not be recognizable as cement by anyone in that industry. Fascinating stuff to work & play with that has an exceptionally long working window. Overwinter temperatures around fifty-degrees F. here permitted sculpting periods as long as 10-12 hours. Too long actually, because it made maintaining proper hydration a difficult and often continuously overnight process. Not a problem in warmer weather or when the retarder is reduced or even replaced with an accelerator. Just a matter of manipulating the mix to fit the environmental conditions. A process that I now better understand and appreciate!

Here is a pic of the finished table top that hopefully shows the level of detail possible and you may even be able to see some of the minute crazing that results. Not at all objectionable in this type of work as long as it is minimized. The surface detailing features "wormholes" & even sawmarks that were researched to replicate those that would have been made by the "pit-saws" used to cut planks like these a hundred-plus years ago. Details that simply would not be possible with a faster setting or less clay-like aggregate-bearing mixture.

Will try again to get you that "Home Page" layout to see what you think. Maybe my web guru knows some tricks for saving/compressing it. I will be talking with him later today. 'Til then...

All my best --- Tango

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:67080}}

Here is a close-up of the "joint" where the full-length trestle goes "through" the crossbrace between a pair of outer legs. Not the best pic, but I will have some shot by a pro for my website shortly. At least you can get some idea how detailed you can get with this mix.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:67081}}

Wow Tango, that's beautiful work!

Tango, I always love seeing your projects. Thanks for sharing another inspiration!
Cindy

Tango - that tabletop is magnificient. You go beyond mimicing wood; you create art! It is no wonder you get more commissions when you deliver a piece!
Laura

Thank-you Tango. Lovely work!!

Please keep us posted on your book.

Thanks for the crazed picture and info running dog.

Debbie

tango - I'll re-send the screenshot of how your layout looked.

I'm really interested in your cement paste method, as I'm a modeller rather than a carver, and moulds are so expensive. I'd love to be able to model directly in a material that acted like clay!

Tango,

I'm glad you posted pics again...I'm still stunned by the detail. I feel sorry for the wood-boring insects that see that thing!!! I'd volunteer a week of hard labor to learn some of your secrets :)

Justin

Great job, looks great.
bonnie

Tango,
That detail is awesome! Great work!
Leigh

Tango ;Your work just makes me say..Holy%##$. Awesome awesome awesome..:)

Gee guys...thank you all...but it's just Cee-ment. With a little practice anyone can do it. And I am genuinely looking forward to sharing what little I've learned with any of you who are interested. That's the only way I know to keep this peculiar old art form alive.

But I gotta' tell ya'...getting the website together to do it is more work than hauling buckets of concrete! And it has me literally working 18 hours a day. So wish me luck. Hopefully it will all come together very soon . And thank you all again for the kind comments. They mean a lot coming from such a talented & dedicated group of folks. All my best --- Tango

Tango,tango, TANGO!!!

Wow, amazing, awe-inspiring. I bow down to your incredible talent. And even more, your inspiring patience in the face of an incredibly tedious project.

"only" three months to create this amazing item.

Were the clients as thunder-struck as I am? Do tell me they have some inkling as to how much work went into this.

How the heck did you deliver this monster?

Howdy Rockyn --- Thank you. Well, I do believe they were a little surprised by the details, but at one point were convinced I must simply be putting them off, since I had originally estimated about 6-8 weeks turnaround. What I didn't allow for going in was the degree to which the set & cure would slow down in cold weather. I thought maybe 25%...but try 200% or more! I wound up working non-stop about 18+ hours a day for all but three of those days. The total number of hours in that project were in excess of a thousand for all three pieces.

I had used this particular formulation on another project done during the summer when it stayed at or near 100 degrees for over a week and it was surprisingly controllable and worked beautifully giving me a "working window" of around 5-6 hours. I could not imagine that it could ever extend beyond 8 hours, but as it turns out, the old masons rules about set & cure times are still quite accurate. Even for "exotic" mixes. It's a rule worth repeating here and one that everyone should be aware of. It goes like this...

"Concrete placed at 90 degrees will set in half the time of concrete placed at 70 degrees and, concrete placed at 50 degrees will take twice as long as concrete placed at 70 degrees."

Words of wisdom from the past. As you can see, if I had done my math correctly and calculated the difference in set times between the 100 degrees & the 40 degrees that were the real temps involved... I would never have estimated 6-8 weeks considering how many seperate layers & set times would be involved. Lesson learned...and a lesson worth passing on. When you come across some ancient masons wisdom...listen to it!

As for moving & delivery...it took the entire Rosehill Volunteer Fire Department to pick it up and turn it over when I was ready to finish the top. 8 big, strong men. The actual delivery was handled by the clients landscape architect. I had warned her that it would require a minimum of 6 very big strong men to handle it...but her crew consisted instead of 6 very small hispanic landscapers. I really felt for those poor guys. They nearly killed themselves getting it on & off the trailer and into place. As a result, they wound up dragging & bashing the legs into the edge of the concrete patio and knocking off four of the six teflon pads I'd mounted. Good thing I'd designed them the way I did or the legs could have been damaged. Another lesson learned...the next piece will be placed with a forklift!

All My Best --- Tango

I had to re surface to tell you how beautiful your latest creation turnes out, Tango. You are so amazing. I am also very interested in the "paste " you were describing.It sounds like it would be fun to use. Thank You so much for sharing.